Boagworld: UX, Design Leadership, Marketing & Conversion Optimization

• E-commerce UX Secrets: What 200,000 Hours of Research Reveals About Conversion

  If you run an e-commerce site or work on digital products, this conversation is packed with research-backed insights that could transform your conversion rates.Apps of the WeekBefore we get into our main discussion, we want to highlight a couple of tools that caught our attention recently.UX-Ray 2.0We talked about this last week, but it deserves another mention. UX-Ray from Baymard Institute is an extraordinary tool built on 150,000 hours (soon to be 200,000 hours) of e-commerce research. You can scan your site or a competitor's URL, and it analyzes it against Baymard's research database, providing specific recommendations for improvement.What makes UX-Ray remarkable is its accuracy. Baymard spent almost $100,000 just setting up a test structure with manually conducted UX audits of 50 different e-commerce sites across nearly 500 UX parameters. They then compared these line by line to how UX-Ray performed, achieving a 95% accuracy rate when compared to human experts. That accuracy is crucial because if a third of your recommendations are actually harmful to conversions, you end up wasting more time weeding those out than you saved.Currently, UX-Ray assesses 40 different UX characteristics. They could assess 80 parameters if they dropped the accuracy to 70%, but they chose quality over quantity. Each recommendation links back to detailed guides explaining the research behind the suggestion.For anyone working in e-commerce, particularly if you're trying to compete with larger players, this tool is worth exploring. There's also a free Baymard Figma plugin that lets you annotate your designs with research-backed insights, which is brilliant for justifying design decisions to stakeholders.SnapWe also came across Snap this week, which offers AI-driven nonfacilitated testing. The tool claims to use AI personas that go around your site completing tasks and speaking out loud, mimicking user behavior.These kinds of tools do our heads in a bit. On one hand, we're incredibly nervous about them because they could just be making things up. There's also the concern that they remove us from interacting with real users, and you don't build empathy with an AI persona the way you do with real people. But on the other hand, the pragmatic part of us recognizes that many organizations never get to do testing because management always says there's no time or money. Tools like this might enable people who would otherwise never test at all.At the end of the day, it comes down to accuracy and methodology. Before using any such tool, you should ask them to document their accuracy rate and show you that documentation. That will tell you how much salt to take their output with.E-commerce UX Best Practices with Christian HolstOur main conversation this month is with Christian Holst, Research Director and Co-Founder of Baymard Institute. We've been following Baymard's work for years, and having Christian on the show gave us a chance to dig into what nearly 200,000 hours of e-commerce research has taught them about conversion optimization.The Birth of Baymard InstituteChristian shared the story of how Baymard started about 15 years ago. His co-founder Jamie was working as a lead front-end developer at a medium-sized agency, and he noticed something frustrating about design decision meetings. When the agency prepared three different design variations, the decision often came down to who could argue most passionately (usually the designer who created that version), the boss getting impatient and just picking one, or the client simply choosing their favorite.Rarely did anyone say they had large-scale user experience data to prove which design would actually work better. They realized they could solve this problem by testing general user behavior across sites and looking for patterns that transcend individual websites. If they threw out the site-specific data and only looked for patterns across sites, they could uncover what are general user behaviors for specific UI components and patterns.It started with just checkout flows. It wasn't even clear they would ever move beyond that. But now, 15 years later, Baymard has a team of around 60 people, with 35 working full-time on conducting new research or maintaining existing research.The Role of Research-Backed GuidelinesOne important point Christian emphasized is that Baymard's research isn't meant to replace your own internal testing. You should always do your own data collection and usability testing. The point of having a large database of user behavior and test-based best practices is that when you're redesigning something, you have maybe 100 micro decisions to make. You can't run internal tests for every single one of those decisions.Even Fortune 500 companies that have the budget don't have the time to wait for results on every micro decision. So what happens is you collect research on the two or three big things that are site-specific or unique to your brand or customer demographic. But all the generic stuff (how to design an expand and collapse feature, how the quantity field should work, how the phone field should be designed in a checkout flow) these are extremely standardized UI components where users have standardized expectations.You shouldn't squander your internal test resources on testing things that are completely generic. That's where pre-made research comes in. It removes 97 of the micro decisions so you can focus your resources on what's unique and important to your brand.Common E-commerce Conversion KillersWe asked Christian what kills conversion the most on e-commerce sites. While it depends on each site's specific issues, there are some concrete things Baymard has consistently seen sites fail at that are surprisingly easy to fix.The Order Review TrapIn countries where you have an order review step (where users review the whole order before pressing "place order"), there's a really dangerous trap. The order review step and the order confirmation step look very similar in users' minds. Both are textual pages that appear after entering credit card data. Both show a summary of information.In testing, Baymard consistently sees some users misinterpret the order review step for a confirmation step. This is a critical error because these users will exit the page thinking they've completed their order. They don't even realize the abandonment occurred. It's the worst type of checkout abandonment that can happen.A very simple trick is to take the "place order" button that you usually have at the bottom of the page and duplicate it so there's also one at the top of the page. One audit client did this and got a $10 million return on investment from just duplicating that button. It won't affect 10% of users, but if it prevents one out of 200 users from abandoning, that's half a percent of all your site revenue you've recovered.Error Recovery ExperienceChristian called this "the least sexy but most important topic" in checkout flows. The general error recovery experience in checkout flows has improved over the 15 years Baymard has been researching, but it's still way too poor.When a validation error occurs, users struggle with three things:Understanding that an error actually happenedUnderstanding where the error isUnderstanding how to resolve itBest practices for error recovery:Provide visual styling for each field that's wrongHave a description at the top of the page that outlines all errorsUse conditional logic: if there's only one error, scroll them to that field. If there are multiple errors, scroll to the top where they can see the overviewBaymard sees users who fix one error, resubmit, and then get frustrated when the page reloads with another error they didn't see. They sometimes conclude the page is broken. When Baymard surveys users, 6% say they've abandoned a checkout flow in the past quarter due to perceived technical errors. Most of these aren't actual technical errors, the page is just extremely complicated to use.Adaptive Error MessagesInstead of saying "phone number is invalid," tell users exactly why. Your technical system knows exactly which validation rule was triggered. If the phone number is wrong because it includes a special character, tell them: "Special characters cannot be used. You don't need to include the country code." If it's too long or too short, say that specifically. This helps users recover faster.Ideally, much of this should be fixed in the backend. Postcodes are a great example, some people put a space in UK postcodes, some don't. Some write it all uppercase, some use mixed case. Why isn't this fixed in the backend? There should be something tidying it up and dropping it into the database in the correct format.Product Data and ImageryOne area where Baymard has seen genuine improvements is around product data and product imagery. Most sites took a long time to figure out that the content on the product details page is crucial to user experience.When users land on a product details page, 90-95% of what they do as a first action is look at the image. But they also use images for tasks where it's a terrible idea. For instance, if trying to figure out whether a speaker has the right connection, instead of going to the specification sheet, they look for images showing the speaker from the back to see the connections. If they can't see it, they conclude it doesn't have the connection and abandon that product.Users are extremely visually driven, even trying to use images to solve problems where it's a poor strategy. Sites need really good imagery from multiple angles, detailed videos showing what goes on visually, and proper product descriptions.Building Trust in E-commerceWe asked Christian about building trust beyond the lazy approach of just shoving social proof and awards on the site. His insights were revealing:Social Proof On and Off-SiteSocial proof is important both on your page and off it. If people are in doubt whether to trust you, they won't trust your version of whether they should trust you. They'll go offsite to check reviews. Responding to negative reviews is crucial because it helps explain or set context. Users often seek out negative reviews more than positive ones to do due diligence. They understand not every product is perfect for every user, but they want to know if the shortcomings are relevant to them.Return Policies and Professional DesignClear and generous return policies help build trust. But there's also the "aesthetic usability effect", having a well-worked design without complications builds trust and credibility. Sites that look too dated will degrade trust. If something looks like it was made in the nineties, users may question if it's too unprofessional.Simply having a site that's not too complicated to use also builds trust. If users get completely stuck, they may conclude it's too unprofessional or wonder if there's something wrong with the business.These effects depend quite a bit on whether people know the brand. It changes dramatically if it's a large known brand versus a completely unknown small site with new users.The Future: AI and E-commerceWe couldn't resist asking Christian about AI's impact on e-commerce. There are similarities to when voice applications came out five or six years ago. Everyone said we'd order everything with our voice, but that didn't really happen. This time may be different, but it won't go as fast as people think, at least not for all purchases.There are some commodity items and household staples you just want restocked when they run out. Those are well suited for AI purchasing, the same type of products you'd buy on subscription today. But many purchases require users to be in control.Where AI is already changing things massively is not in the complete purchase but in research and product discovery. Which digital camera should I buy? Which one is best for my requirements? This has always been an offsite experience. Users typically have multiple e-commerce sites, review sites, blogs, and social media open when researching purchases. That part is changing rapidly with AI.But going from winnowing down millions of products to a few options, then having AI auto-purchase one of them, will take quite a while before users are that confident. It may even be generational, people our age may never fully trust it even when it becomes trustworthy, while the next generation growing up with competent AI will develop different habits.Final ThoughtsWhat really strikes us about e-commerce optimization is how it's death by a thousand cuts. It's not that one of these things will wreck your conversion rate, but collectively they cause real problems. When you're dealing with an entire e-commerce site, there are so many little things that it's impossible to plan for all of them upfront. You will miss things.That's why post-launch optimization is crucial. There will always be things that need improving, and that ongoing work can span years. It's a big job, but the research and tools that organizations like Baymard provide make it far more manageable than trying to figure everything out from scratch.Marcus's JokeAnd now, as always, Marcus leaves us with his joke of the week:"My dad suggested I register for a donor card. He's a man after my own heart."That's actually quite good, Marcus. We'll allow it. Find The Latest Show Notes

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• Freelancing for Small Businesses: Real World Budget Constraints and High Stakes

  Welcome to Episode 27 of the Boagworld Show, where we dive into a side of web work that doesn't get nearly enough attention. This month, we're exploring life as a freelancer working with small businesses. We're joined by Paul Edwards, a fellow member of the Agency Academy who has spent two decades serving clients that don't have massive budgets or sprawling marketing teams. If you've ever wondered how best practice advice translates to the real world of limited resources and high stakes, this conversation is for you.App of the Week: Baymard UX-RayBefore we get into our main conversation, we need to talk about an extraordinary tool that just launched. Baymard UX-Ray is built on the Baymard Institute's 150,000 hours of ecommerce research. If you're not familiar with Baymard, they've been conducting rigorous usability research for years, building an enormous repository of what actually works in ecommerce design.What makes UX-Ray remarkable is how it applies all that research. You can input your own site or a competitor's URL, and the tool scans it against Baymard's research database. It then provides specific recommendations for improvement, each one linked back to detailed guides explaining the research behind the suggestion.Now, we'll be honest. Tools like this can feel a bit depressing when you first encounter them. Another thing that AI can do that used to be our job, right? But the reality is more nuanced. You still need expertise to ask the right questions, to know when to ignore advice that doesn't fit your situation, and to implement recommendations effectively. What UX-Ray really does is democratize access to quality research, allowing smaller teams and solo practitioners to benefit from insights that would otherwise require a massive research budget.For anyone working in ecommerce, particularly if you're trying to compete with larger players, this tool is worth exploring.Life as a Freelancer Serving Small BusinessesOur main conversation this month centers on something we don't discuss enough in the UX and web design community. Most of the advice you read online, most of the case studies and best practice articles, come from people working with large organizations. We're guilty of this too. Between the two of us, we've worked with clients like Doctors Without Borders, GlaxoSmithKline, and major universities. That shapes our perspective in ways we don't always recognize.Paul Edwards brings a different lens. He's spent 20 years as a freelancer, and while he's worked with organizations of varying sizes, the common thread through his client list isn't scale. It's circumstance. His clients typically have small or nonexistent marketing teams. They're often time-poor and lack technical expertise. Most importantly, they have skin in the game in a way that corporate clients rarely do.The Origin StoryPaul's freelance journey started dramatically. On November 5, 2005, he had a tantrum at his job as a commercial manager for a civil engineering company and quit on the spot. No savings, no business plan, no real idea what he was doing. He just knew he'd been teaching himself web design with Dreamweaver and Fireworks, and he thought maybe he could make a go of it.What followed was the classic freelancer trajectory. He worked his friends and family network, which led him into academia and international development work. He found himself building sites for projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, DFID, and the World Bank. These weren't necessarily well-funded projects despite the prestigious funders, but they gave him experience working with agencies across Europe and projects in Africa focused on critical issues like hygiene and sanitation.What Makes Small Business Work DifferentWhen you're working with a small business owner, the stakes are fundamentally different. As Paul put it, the number of clicks their campaign generates directly affects how much money they take home at the end of the month and the security of their family. That changes everything about the relationship.This isn't to say working with large organizations is easy or that the work doesn't matter. But in a corporation, success and failure are distributed across many people and many factors. When you're working with someone who owns their business, your work has an immediate, visible impact on their livelihood. The opportunity cost of failure is enormous. The credit for success is also more direct, which can be incredibly motivating.Paul's business has evolved toward more retainer and time bank arrangements over project work. This shift happened gradually but has been transformative. For clients, it guarantees access to his expertise when they need it. For Paul, it provides income stability. But there's another benefit that often gets overlooked. When you have long-term retainer clients, especially small ones with staff turnover, you become a point of continuity in their organization.One of Paul's retainer clients had a marketing department of two people. Both left within a year. Paul was literally the only person who understood the history of their digital presence, their past campaigns, and their strategic direction. That kind of institutional knowledge is incredibly valuable, and it's something freelancers can uniquely provide.The Budget RealityWe had to ask about budget because it's the elephant in every room. When you're working with smaller clients, you simply have fewer resources to work with. So how do you adapt all the best practice advice that assumes you have time for extensive user research, iterative testing, and comprehensive documentation?Paul's answer was illuminating. He doesn't find himself frustrated by advice that doesn't apply to his situation. He just doesn't apply it. As a generalist, he's always picked and chosen what's relevant, learning what he needs for each specific job and disregarding the rest. He can't let his head explode trying to take in everything, so he focuses ruthlessly on what matters for the work at hand.The reality is that best practice often needs to be adapted regardless of client size. A lot of what gets labeled as essential process work serves organizational needs as much as user needs. In a large organization, you might conduct extensive research partly to align compliance, get legal on board, and protect your client contact from political fallout. In a small business where you're talking directly to the decision maker, you can move faster and iterate post-launch.That doesn't mean cutting corners on things that matter. Paul still does discovery and research work, but he structures it differently. Rather than one large project with research baked in, he often does pre-project discovery as separate billable work. This allows him to flex the scope based on what the client has in-house, what they lack, and what will actually move the needle for them.Filtering Clients and Managing RiskOne of the most valuable parts of our conversation was Paul's approach to client selection. He's learned through hard experience that taking on a client who isn't a good fit costs far more in stress and lost time than the revenue is worth. Every single time he's taken someone on when his gut said no, it's been worse than if he hadn't brought that money in.So Paul has developed a risk scoring process. He researches Companies House filings and financial accounts. He Googles potential clients thoroughly. He makes sure to be himself from the first conversation, explaining that he's blunt and tends to say what he thinks. Some people say they want that but really don't, and it's better to discover the mismatch early.When things do go wrong, which is rare after 20 years, Paul offboards as quickly and graciously as possible. He sees it as partly his fault for misjudging the fit, so he tries not to burn bridges. He'll help them find someone else to work with and exits professionally.We wondered whether this kind of risk management is more necessary when working with smaller organizations. After all, you know Oxford University will eventually pay their bills, even if slowly. Paul's experience is that payment risk exists at all scales, but small businesses can have more volatile finances. However, most of his clients pay within 48 hours, which is remarkable. The key is that by moving toward retainer and time bank models where time is paid upfront, a lot of payment anxiety simply disappears.The Generalist Advantage and AI's RoleOur conversation kept circling back to the value of being a generalist, and how AI is amplifying that advantage. Paul described AI as helping him get out of his own way. If he knows 90 percent of what's needed to help a client but lacks that final 10 percent, he used to decline the work. The opportunity cost of getting it wrong felt too high. Now, AI helps him bridge that last 10 percent with confidence.He shared a perfect example. A trade business client, selling into the architectural sector, wanted help with their Google Ads campaign. Paul had dabbled in PPC but wasn't an expert. The client was willing to pay him to learn, which was fortunate, and AI supported that learning process. It helped him analyze the massive amounts of data that PPC campaigns generate, identify trends, and fill knowledge gaps. The result was a completely new campaign with much lower spend, a huge increase in relevant clicks, and better funnel positioning. The client was so pleased they sent him a Christmas hamper, a first in 20 years.This is what the return of the generalist looks like. AI isn't replacing expertise. It's allowing people with broad knowledge and good judgment to tackle problems that previously required specialists. You still need to know enough to ask good questions, to recognize when something feels off, and to verify AI's suggestions. But you can now say yes to opportunities that would have been too risky before.What Large Organizations Can LearnNear the end of our conversation, Paul made an observation that stuck with us. While he learns constantly from working with small businesses, he thinks there's value flowing the other way too. People working with large organizations, like us, often miss things that become obvious when the stakes are personal and immediate.When you work with a business owner who's putting their family's financial security on the line, you can't hide behind process or best practice. You have to deliver real value. You have to be adaptable. You have to become genuinely invested in their success because they're so clearly invested themselves. That kind of clarity and accountability can be harder to find in large organizational work, where responsibility is diffuse and success has many parents.This Month's ReadsEach month, we share a few articles, videos, and resources that caught our attention and sparked interesting conversations about the state of our industry.Functional Personas: A Practical GuideFollowing up on last month's discussion about AI-generated personas, Paul has now written a comprehensive guide for Smashing Magazine. The article walks through his method for creating functional personas using AI, explaining when this approach makes sense and how to implement it effectively. If you've been curious about whether AI-generated personas can actually be useful, this piece answers that question with practical examples.Experience Design: The Return of the GeneralistNielsen Norman Group has posted a video arguing for a terminology shift from "user experience design" to "experience design." Their reasoning is that UX has developed a reputation problem. People think they know what it means, but they're often wrong, associating it primarily with visual interface design.We have mixed feelings about this. The problem isn't really the word "user." It's the word "design." When most people hear design, they think of visual design and interface work, not the broader strategic and research work that UX encompasses. Changing to "experience design" doesn't solve that fundamental misunderstanding.That said, the video makes interesting points about the return of the generalist, which aligns with much of our conversation this month. As tools like AI make specialist knowledge more accessible, there's growing value in people who can work across disciplines and see the bigger picture.Marcus's Joke of the WeekA perfectionist walks into a bar. Apparently it wasn't set high enough. Find The Latest Show Notes

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• Dark Patterns, Bright Ideas: Why Deceptive Design Belongs in Accessibility

  You know, those sneaky little tricks sites use to funnel you into doing things you never intended, like paying for insurance you didn’t want or scrolling until your thumb falls off.We talked about why this stuff isn’t just bad manners, but also an accessibility issue, and how to push back when your boss is shouting about conversion rates. We also wandered off into personas, because what’s a Boagworld Show without a tangent or two?App of the WeekThis week app is Be My Eyes. It’s designed to support blind and low-vision users by letting them connect with volunteers (or increasingly, AI) who can describe what’s in front of them. It’s practical, humane, and a great reminder that sometimes technology really does make life easier. Unlike my dishwasher, which still beeps at me like I’m trying to launch a nuclear missile.Topic of the Week: Deceptive Design, Accessibility, And The Real Cost Of ManipulationThis is where we rolled up our sleeves and got into the meat of it. What actually counts as deceptive design, why it’s more than just “bad UX,” and why the accessibility crowd are getting involved.What Do We Mean By Deceptive?There’s no single definition everyone agrees on, but the gist is: if you’re deliberately steering or trapping users into something they didn’t intend or need (and especially if it lines your company’s pockets) it’s deceptive. That’s different from an anti-pattern, which is just poor design born of ignorance.Why It’s An Accessibility IssueDeceptive patterns catch everyone out eventually, but they’re especially cruel to people with cognitive disabilities, attention difficulties, or those relying on assistive tech.If you’ve ever been stuck doomscrolling until you realized it’s not lunchtime but bedtime, you’ll know the feeling. The difference is, for some users, the consequences can be more than just a lost afternoon. That’s why accessibility guidelines are starting to take these patterns seriously.If you’re keen to see where this work is going, have a poke at these:WCAG 3 Working DraftW3C User StoriesProposed Personas DraftWhere It Gets MessyOf course, it’s rarely moustache-twirling villains plotting this stuff. Most of the time it’s teams chasing KPIs (sales, clicks, engagement) and nudging too far. That’s how you get:The big shiny green “Buy with insurance” button, while the “Buy without” option is hiding in grey.Cheaper plans buried three clicks down, so the expensive ones look like the only choice.The friendly phone call that turns into a hard sell for extended warranties.On paper the numbers look great. Meanwhile, refunds, complaints, and customer churn quietly tick upward. But hey, at least the dashboard looks good, right?The Role Of AIAI has the potential to make things better (look at how Be My Eyes uses it) but it also risks making things worse. More chatbots standing between you and an actual human being, for instance.At the moment we haven’t seen a tidal wave of AI-driven trickery, but the ingredients are all there. Somewhere in Silicon Valley, there’s probably a twenty-something rubbing his hands and plotting.Pushing Back Without Becoming UnemployedTelling your boss “this is unethical” might get you a polite nod. Showing them how deceptive patterns increase refunds, tank repeat purchases, and hike up customer support costs? That’s when people start listening. Always lead with the business case, because sadly “doing the right thing” isn’t enough in most boardrooms.Offer alternatives that still meet goals but don’t annoy users. Equal-weight buttons. Clear language. Confirmations before adding sneaky extras. And if management still insists, put your concerns in an email so there’s a record. Nobody likes receiving an email that basically says, “I warned you.”Personas With A Bit More RealityWhile we’re at it, let’s talk personas. Most marketing personas are about as useful as a chocolate teapot. They’re built around demographics and stereotypes. King Charles and Ozzy Osbourne would end up in the same persona (same age, same country, both live in castles). Clearly useless.Instead, think functional personas. Base them on needs, tasks, objections, and accessibility requirements.You don’t need a “disabled persona.” Just make sure some of your personas have traits like dyslexia, ADHD, low vision, or anxiety about being conned. That way, you’ve got a ready-made reason to say, “This won’t work for Priya, who relies on a screen reader.”The Big PictureDeception feels like a shortcut. It isn’t. It costs you in trust, support overhead, and long-term loyalty. Treat deceptive design as an accessibility barrier, argue with data, and keep users in your personas. That way you’ll serve both your customers and your company—and maybe sleep better at night.Read of the WeekIn this week’s show we also highlighted two cracking resources:Deceptive DesignA collection of manipulative patterns with real examples. Perfect for calling out “that thing the boss wants us to try.”Deceptive Patterns and FAST by Todd LibbySlides from Todd’s talk. Great for showing stakeholders that you’re not just making it up as you go along.Marcus JokeWe’ll wrap up with Marcus’s groaner of the week:“I told a joke on a Zoom meeting and nobody laughed. Turns out I am not even remotely funny.” Find The Latest Show Notes

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• Creating Your UX Playbook

  By now, you’ve probably seen how powerful it can be to stop doing all the UX work yourself. Acting as a consultant and guide lets you touch far more projects. But that shift only works if your colleagues have the knowledge and resources they need.That’s where a UX playbook comes in.Think of it as your team’s reference manual. A central hub that gathers everything you’ve been building (principles, policies, templates, and tools) into one accessible place. When someone asks how to run a survey or plan a usability test, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You just point them to the playbook.Why a Playbook MattersA UX playbook isn’t just documentation. It’s a lever of influence.It empowers colleagues to act on their own, without waiting for you to step in.It standardizes quality, ensuring consistent best practice across projects.It defuses conflict, since you can refer stakeholders to shared rules instead of relying on personal opinion.It builds credibility, both inside and outside your organization, by showing you’ve codified your approach.Look at the UK Government Digital Service. When they launched their Service Manual, it didn’t just help civil servants build better services. It also established GDS as a leader across the public sector. Other organizations referenced it. Their reputation grew. And that external influence reinforced their internal authority.That’s the kind of multiplier effect a playbook can unlock.Outie’s AsideIf you’re running a freelance practice or an agency, a playbook can be just as valuable, maybe even more so. But instead of being internal, it becomes a client-facing asset.Imagine showing up to a pitch with your own playbook: a polished resource that outlines your approach to user research, testing, and design. It reassures clients that you have a clear methodology, not just a portfolio of past projects. It also helps set expectations about how you’ll work together, making tricky conversations about process and scope much easier.Better yet, a playbook positions you as more than a pair of hands. It shows you’re a strategic partner with a repeatable system that clients can trust. You could even publish a slimmed-down version publicly, which acts as both marketing collateral and a credibility booster.So whether you’re in-house or independent, the principle holds: codifying your standards and practices into a playbook makes you look professional, scales your influence, and reduces the time you spend re-explaining the basics.What to Include in a UX PlaybookThere’s no single formula. Your playbook should reflect the challenges and questions that keep coming up in your organization. But here are some areas worth considering:The Role of UX: A page that frames why UX matters, sets expectations of your team, and positions you as a strategic partner.**Guiding Principles:** Short, memorable statements like "We design with evidence, not assumptions." These act as a compass for decision-making.Project Planning Guidance: Clear steps for how to integrate UX into a digital project, from defining user stories to selecting research methods.Prioritization Policy: A transparent way of ranking projects so you're not stuck working on "whoever shouts loudest."How Projects Run: A simple outline of your process (discovery, design, testing, iteration) so colleagues know what to expect.Ongoing Management: Policies around content maintenance, accessibility, and retirement so digital products don't rot.People and Roles: An overview of the skills involved in UX, to raise awareness of the complexity and collaboration required.Research and Testing Resources: Step-by-step guides, templates, and educational materials that help colleagues conduct basic user interviews, surveys, and usability tests independently.Governance and Compliance: Accessibility, privacy, or security policies that your organization needs to observe.Technology Considerations: Hosting, analytics, backups—practical guidance to remind colleagues of the details that matter.Don’t worry about tackling all this at once. At first, each section might only be a single page. Over time, you can build them out into a richer resource.How to Approach ItThe biggest mistake I see is trying to write the “definitive” playbook straight away. That’s overwhelming, and it rarely gets finished.Instead, start small. Publish your principles. Add a couple of checklists or templates. Collect some common questions you get from stakeholders and answer them. Then keep iterating.A few other tips:Assign ownership. One person should be responsible for maintaining the playbook, even if they draw in contributions from others.Make it engaging. Write it in plain language. Use visuals and examples. Keep it scannable.Keep it visible. Don’t bury it on the intranet where documents go to die. Make it a living site that demonstrates the best practices it promotes.Position it as a help, not a rulebook. If colleagues find it useful, they’ll return to it. If it feels like bureaucracy, they’ll ignore it.Your Next StepTake one resource you’ve already created (maybe your design principles, a usability testing guide, or a research checklist) and publish it in a shareable format. That’s the seed of your playbook. Once it’s live, add to it bit by bit.A digital playbook is one of the most powerful tools you can create. It strengthens your credibility, empowers others, and allows you to scale your impact without burning out.In our next lesson, we’ll look at how to turn resources into real behavior change. Because giving people tools is one thing. Getting them to actually use them is another. Find The Latest Show Notes

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• Stop Firefighting: A Smarter Way to Prioritize UX Work

  One of the most important policies you can ever set for your UX team is how you prioritize work. Without it, you risk becoming a firefighter running from one blaze to another, driven by who shouts loudest or whose deadline is closest. That’s no way to deliver meaningful user experience.Most of us are outnumbered. There will always be more requests than we can handle. The only way to keep your head above water is to establish a clear, fair, and transparent prioritization process. That’s where digital triage and a scoring system come in.Why Prioritization MattersMany UX teams I encounter work on a “first come, first served” basis. Or worse, they work on whatever task has the loudest advocate or the scariest deadline. None of these methods are fair or effective. They waste energy on low-value projects and leave your most important work sidelined.You need a way to make sure your time goes into projects that matter most. That means having two lines of defense: digital triage and a prioritization backlog.Step One: Digital TriageTriage is your first filter. When a request lands on your desk, don’t dive straight in. Pause and ask a few key questions:Business alignment: Does this support core business objectives? If your company’s main goal this quarter is customer retention, a flashy microsite for a one-off campaign probably doesn’t make the cut.Audience: Does it affect a primary audience group or just a fringe one? Improving onboarding for new customers has more weight than polishing a tool used by a handful of internal staff.User need: Is this solving a real, pressing problem for users, or is it just someone’s nice-to-have idea?Feasibility: Is it realistic with the resources available, or will it swallow months of effort for limited gain?If a request fails on most of these, it doesn’t mean it disappears forever. It just doesn’t deserve your attention right now. Triage is about protecting your limited capacity from being drained by low-impact work.Step Two: Score and Build Your BacklogWhen a job comes in, score it immediately. This scoring system is your triage method and determines where each request sits in your backlog. I use four simple criteria, each ranked 1 to 5:Business alignment: 5 if it's central to strategy, 1 if it's unrelated.Effort required: 5 if trivial, 1 if it's huge.User group impact: 5 if it affects your core audience, 1 if it barely touches anyone.User need: 5 if it addresses a critical need, 1 if it's minor.Add up the scores, and you've got a clear view of where each project belongs in your prioritized backlog.As new jobs come in, they are assessed and then slotted into the appropriate place in the backlog.An ExampleSay marketing asks for a new landing page. You score it like this:Business alignment: 4 (supports acquisition, a current business goal)Effort required: 3 (will take some design and dev time, but manageable)User group impact: 2 (only affects one segment, not core users)User need: 3 (helps users, but not a burning problem)That gives a total of 12 out of 20. Useful, but not top priority. It slots into your backlog beneath projects with higher scores.The beauty of this system is that you’re not saying “no.” You’re simply placing requests in order. Lower-value work naturally slides to the bottom of the pile.Managing the BacklogKeep your backlog visible. Maintain separate lists if you handle both major projects and small “business as usual” work.I recommend most digital teams are split into two work streams. One focuses on “business as usual” (optimization), the other on larger, future focused projects (innovation.Whenever a new request comes in, score it and slot it in transparently. This takes the politics out of the process. People can see for themselves why their project sits where it does.Over time, you’ll find the backlog itself becomes a communication tool. It helps you show leadership how much demand there is and how you’re focusing on the projects that deliver the most value.Handling PushbackOf course, not everyone will like where their project lands. Here’s how to handle it and some of the common objections you’ll hear:Urgent queue-jumpers: Make it policy that deadlines are agreed with you upfront. If someone comes late in the process, they may need to go to an external supplier. A common objection here is: “But what if everything feels urgent?” The truth is, not everything can be urgent. If everything is top priority, nothing really is. Triage forces tough but necessary trade-offs.Disagreements over scoring: Define an escalation path. If stakeholders challenge your scoring, who makes the final call? Having this agreed in advance avoids endless debates.Some worry: “Doesn’t scoring everything slow us down?” In practice, scoring is quick, just minutes of work that save weeks of wasted effort on the wrong priorities.Stakeholders ignoring the backlog: Digital Triage needs to be approved as an organizational policy, not your personal system. When leadership endorses it, people tend to fall inline, especially when you don’t back down.Leadership overrides: When senior managers bypass the system, don’t resist. Instead, invite them to refine the scoring criteria so they better reflect leadership’s priorities. Often this nudges them back toward consistency.Perception of bureaucracy: Some will say, “Isn’t this just bureaucracy?” Not if you keep it simple. A lightweight scoring system and transparent backlog is far less bureaucratic than endless meetings arguing over priorities.The great thing about this approach is that it prevents you from being perceived as the bottleneck or the “bad guy.” As I said in the last lesson, policies are not personal. You are just implementing a policy equally to all and working within the resources you have been given.Why It WorksThis approach makes your workload transparent, fair, and defensible. It reduces politics and ensures your energy goes into projects with the biggest impact on both users and the business. Most importantly, it shifts you from reactive firefighting to proactive leadership.This system has another hidden benefit for UX professionals. You too can submit projects to be scored alongside everyone else's requests.Because of your knowledge and experience, these strategic UX initiatives will typically rank well when scored against business objectives and user needs. This means all that strategic work you've always wanted to do (like user research, design system improvements, or accessibility audits) won't keep getting pushed to the bottom of the pile in favor of tactical requests.Next time, we're going to talk about bringing all of these policies and procedures, alongside training material, together into a digital playbook. Find The Latest Show Notes

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